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doors and across the sloping lawn.
    â€œDo you think we saw a ghost?” Lily asked. Her voice was filled with wonder.
    â€œI don’t know.” I didn’t, really.
    â€œThat would be so amazing if we did. Can you imagine?”
    I could.
    Lily stopped as we reached the white fence circling the pool. “We need to go back. To explore. Tonight, okay?”
    â€œOkay.” My mind jolted with sudden possibilities.
    Lily clapped her hands together. “What if we find a ghost?”
    This was it. The perfect intro. I couldn’t have scripted it better. If we find a ghost, I can talk with it because that’s what I do . . . . I formulated the words in my brain.
    Here we go , I thought.
    â€œIf we find—”
    â€œHi.” Lily’s voice came out low and giggly. “You taking tickets or something?”
    Two boys about our age leaned against the fence, blocking our way in.
    â€œJust name, rank, and fingerprints,” said the taller of the two. He flipped his long brown bangs off his forehead and narrowed his hazel eyes.
    â€œSo this is your job? Pool police?” Lily asked, grinning.
    â€œWaterslide warrior, at your service.” The boy crossed his arms in a tough-guy pose. His biceps weremore muscular than most guys I knew. “This is my sidekick.” He nodded toward the skinny boy at his side with a mop of dark curls. “He specializes in wet towels.”
    â€œI do not, Wyatt!” The mop-haired boy blushed, then swatted his friend with, of all things, a wet towel. “And I’m not your sidekick.”
    â€œOwen’s a little sensitive. I keep whupping him in waterslide races.” He turned to the slides towering above the pool. Two tubes twirled downward, spitting out swimmers side by side into the deep end.
    â€œYou up for it?” Wyatt asked Lily. “Me against you?”
    Lily’s eyes shone. She never backed down from a challenge. “Bring it!”
    I watched as she dropped her bag on an empty chaise lounge, peeled off her tunic and kicked off her sandals, then confidently followed Wyatt to the slide.
    Owen stood silently next to me, twisting the towel in his hands.
    So much for telling Lily , I thought. The perfect opportunity—and now it was gone.
    I turned to Owen. “Want to swim?”

Chapter 5
    â€œI went down the slide twenty-five times,” Lily reported to her mom and Aunt Angela that night at dinner. “And then we floated in chair rafts while we drank strawberry-banana smoothies in the pool.”
    â€œSo Helliman House is getting a thumbs-up so far?” Angela inquired.
    â€œTotally,” I said. “And we haven’t even hit the lake yet.”
    Lily speared a crouton from her Caesar salad as she scanned the main room of the restaurant. I knew she was looking for Wyatt. While we were getting dressed for dinner, she’d talked of nothing else. Wyatt was fourteen and from New York City. He went to a fancy private school, rode the subway all by himself, and had just finished a summer at an all-boys summer camp. Lily thought he was very sophisticated. And cute.
    Very cute.
    Owen, it turned out, had just met Wyatt here yesterday. His family was from some town near Chicago. He hadn’t talked much, but when he did, he had a sort of sarcastic sense of humor that I kind of liked.
    â€œSara, look!” Lily grabbed my shoulder. “It’s her!”
    â€œWho?” Mrs. Randazzo asked.
    Neither Lily nor I answered. We stared at the woman being shown by the hostess to the table next to us. She wore a simple sundress, and her auburn hair was twisted in a long, loose braid she’d swooped over her shoulder. Dozens of woven hemp bracelets covered both wrists.
    â€œYou’re right,” I whispered.
    â€œShe’s not a ghost.” Lily sounded disappointed.
    â€œOkay, spill it,” Angela said, her eyes sparkling. “What’re we talking about?”
    In